India Walton.Photo: Joshua Bessex/AP/Shutterstock
India Walton notched a political victory — not her first, but her biggest — in June when the relatively unknown candidate beat Buffalo, New York’s four-term mayorin a Democratic primary, seemingly putting her on a path to become the city’s first female mayor and the first to identify as a democratic socialist.
Incumbent Byron Brown threw a wrench in that plan that same month, however, launching a campaign as awrite-in candidatein a move that — if he wins — would make him the city’s longest-serving mayor. After essentially ignoring Walton’s campaign against him, Brownwent on the offensive, criticizing her “radical socialist” politics and lack of political experience.
“I always remember being on food stamps, being a little bit food insecure, having our gas shut off at times and having to warm water on a hot plate to take a bath,” Walton toldThe New Yorker.
As the magazine recounts, Walton became pregnant at 14 — dropping out of high school and getting a job at McDonald’s to support her son, who was diagnosed with sickle-cell anemia.
At age 19, she had twins, later going to nursing school and getting a job at the Buffalo Children’s Hospital.
Around that time, her interest in policy began to grow; she became active in her union, even speaking at a rally and appearing on MSNBC.
But it wasn’t until she moved to a neighborhood on Buffalo’s East Side — an area that’s become central to the city’s conflict over gentrification — that she began making strides to alter the way politics were conducted in her own neighborhood. She also navigated personal turmoil, including a period of homelessness before she ultimately divorced her estranged husband.
She made local headlines in 2016,staging a one-woman protestto highlight the lack of street parking for long-time residents. The stunt was successful, and Walton negotiated with a city councilman over the issue — leading to the use of parking permits in the area.
Walton then decided to make the leap from nursing to organizing, landing a job at Open Buffalo, which describes itself as focused on racial, economic and ecological justice.
When theCOVID-19 pandemicbegan affecting Buffalo, she said she focused on getting food to those in need and aiding those who needed help to get around the city. Speaking toThe New Yorker, Walton contrasted her own efforts to that of Brown’s: “The mayor’s solution to the pandemic was to put door hangers on doors, saying ‘Check on Your Neighbors.’ " (Brown encouraged vaccination against the virus and took other major steps, including declaring a state of emergency.)
Walton announced her campaign in November 2020,tellingThe BuffaloNews: “My mind is made up. It’s time for new leadership. It’s time for a person of the people.”
Her campaign has since won the endorsements of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s political-action committee and the Democratic Socialists of America as well as the Western New York Working Families Party, which had previously backed Brown in all of his campaigns.
Her increased profile has also brought greater scrutiny.
“Everything that I’ve been through has prepared me to lead, it’s prepared me for these attacks on my character,” Walton said in an earlier interviewwith local station WKBWaddressing her past legal and financial issues. “I own my identity.”
About the fraud case, Walton compared it to a “poor tax” levied on someone in an unstable situation.
“In hindsight, I would have been more proactive about reporting my income in a more timely manner, but this is not something that is uncommon,” Walton told WKBW. “I think most people who have received any type of government assistance knows that there are overpayments, there are underpayments, and you know, it was paid back.”
She said then that “currently I don’t owe any taxes.”
“It is difficult to be running for office,” she said. “let alone a woman with children or a woman who’s led a life where she wasn’t groomed to be in this position.”
source: people.com
